The typical home or business is provided with a vast network of wiring to power electric devices in the home or business. Within a home or business, electric power typically starts at a set of circuit breakers, and then is distributed to a number of separate circuits. For example, it is common to have one or more switches near the entry or entries of a room to operate lights in the room, and also to provide a number of powered electric outlets around the periphery of a room, so that various electric appliances such as lamps, stereo equipment, kitchen or bath appliances, and the like can be plugged in and electrically powered.
Home automation systems may be provided to establish automatic control of such devices. For example, a user may plug switches into electric outlets and use computers or other controllers to turn electric power on or off to devices that are in turn plugged into the switches. One common home automation system is the widely-known X10 system and associated protocol for home automation. In addition, users may interpose power strips between an electric outlet and one or more appliances (e.g., as a boxy housing that rests against the wall in front of the outlet, or as a longer strip having a relatively large number of outlets that plugs into the wall outlet via a power cord), and those power strips may provide electronic output regarding the amount of power that passes through them.